Alabama heads into the heart of its preseason camp this week after taking part in its first scrimmage over the weekend. The Crimson Tide now has 12 practices, including one more scrimmage, until its enters game week for its season-opener against Duke on Aug. 31.
Today, we will examine where Alabama currently stands by providing three things we learned, two questions and one prediction based on what we’ve seen from fall camp.
THREE THINGS WE LEARNED
Positive news on placekicking and punting
As usual, stats weren’t provided from Saturday’s closed scrimmage. However, if they had been, they would have shown plenty of encouraging signs for Alabama’s kicking and punting games.
“They did really well today,” head coach Nick Saban said when asked about the kicking units following the scrimmage. “I don’t know exactly what the stats were, but both punters — Will (Reichard) and Skyler (DeLong) — both punted the ball really well. Will was really good on field goals. I think Joe (Bulovas) was pretty good on field goals.”
According to reports from those in attendance Reichard was especially impressive, connecting on all four of his field goals with a long of 50 yards during the scrimmage. This comes after the freshman nailed a 43-yard kick during the A-Day game this spring. Meanwhile, Alabama fans will welcome positive news surrounding Bulovas after the redshirt sophomore delivered a disappointing 1 of 3 showing on A-Day.
The success in the punting game is also an encouraging trend. DeLong averaged 47.5 yards on his four attempts during A-Day and looks to have finally put his freshman demons behind him. As Saban mentioned, Reichard is also a candidate for the punting role after averaging 42.2 yards on six punts during A-Day.
